Edan Staffs of the Ogboni Society in the Yoruba Cultural Panorama

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Periodical article

Title:	Edan Staffs of the Ogboni Society in the Yoruba Cultural Panorama
Author:	Adepegba, Cornelius O.
Year:	1985
Periodical:	Journal of African Studies (UCLA)
Volume:	12
Issue:	1
Period:	Spring
Pages:	32-38
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Yoruba secret societies Architecture and the Arts Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Abstract:	Edan, a pair of small anthropomorphic staffs, fashioned in brass and associated with the Yoruba Ogboni society, are well-known, common, artistic objects. Ogboni, the society with which edan is associated, is similar to freemasonry; its activities are ritualistic and surrounded by secrecy. In the days of traditional governments, before the Yoruba bowed politically to the British and French in the nineteenth century, the society was reputed to have exerted immense political influence. Ogboni and its associated art objects, edan, have been the subject of academic investigations. The authenticity of some of the findings and the method used for getting them must be questioned. In addition to limitations and shortcomings of scholars and their approaches, most findings appear to have been drawn from the society itself. Other facts of Yoruba culture, however, provide clues to the mysteries surrounding the Ogboni. This essay spreads its net beyond Ogboni into the rest of Yoruba culture. It is the effort of an outsider to give rational interpretations to the society's associated art objects. - Notes.